I thought I ought to post. Clearly some people love this game. My experiences were less than stellar.

I got it through the indie bundle. So I didn't pay full price, I suppose.

Basically my game consisted of "what the *** do I do?" until the first raiders turned up and killed me five times. Then I quit.

Before that I'd clicked on everything I could think of. I clicked on "how to play" and read the useless information a half dozen times. I appreciate there's an online manual - but (even though I'm perfectly literate and happy to read) - if I have to read a book for a few hours before spending one second in game...that's not the point. Where's the tutorial to teach you the basics? Where's the intro to the game?

None. Whatsoever.

Clicking on the building showed me there /are/ things I can do. But I don't have the gold. Okay. Is there a way to get more? One of the maruaders I killed had some...but I get the feeling that the 10 minutes until they turned up could have been spent more productively somehow. If only I could find something to click on that would help.

So yes. Massively disappointed - and thought I should say so. Even though it makes me feel like I'm an idiot for not getting this in any way shape or form, I have to wonder how many other indie bundle users tried and failed at this. I can't see my trying it again, or reading replies. I frankly can't be bothered chasing it down if it can't come to me. That sounds awfully lazy, I know - but I want games to be fun, not a treasure hunt for how to play on the internet.

(Thus I suggest restricting replies to: This is a problem with the game, and perhaps we can find ways to address this for future players - it would be worthwhile. Because I clearly won't be buying any of the other Tilted Mill products).

When you start a game, you can select a few options, just disable raiders for a first game.

Then the tab key shows you the region (as well as a click on the region button). There you are in the lower corner. You have to bring peace to the region, which means that you have to kill all the monsters around. So start wandering around, kill monsters and collect loot and experience. Come back to your village, especially if you have some gold, to hire villagers (seen on the left, click on them and build a house for them). That should get you going...

Hope this helps.

Hinterland is a bit different from the city building games TM has done otherwise, don't conclude from one of these games about the other games, they are very different.

I felt I had to respond to this. I agree the game guide in game isnt very good at all but it gets the basic point across. The manual is 13 pages long not a few hours as you posted, the whole read would take you 14 minutes if you read at 1 minute per page. I really hope you dont give up on this game as it is very fun and easy once you get the basics down. I played a full game after reading the online manual as I forget how certain things worked as well.